Ordinarily, to open draperies, the draperies are manually moved along a drapery cord between open and closed positions. This, of course, effectively regulates the amount of natural light entering a room.
It is often desirable to have motorized drapery actuators to open and close draperies. Such drapery actuators typically have a drive pulley to engage a drapery cord which, in turn, engages draperies and the like. In this respect, actuation of the drive pulley opens and closes the draperies. The drapery actuator disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,889,377 to the within inventor is one example of such a device.
Known motorized drapery actuator systems, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,112, include variably positional limit switch actuators 68 & 69 each mounted on a pull-cord bight 14 with parallel reaches 15,16, which trip respective limit switches 65 & 66 respectively which serve to prevent further movement of the curtain at the desired fully open position and fully closed position. Such a system is only adaptable to drapes having pull-cords. Moreover, such a system using limit switches cannot be readily applied to draperies which do not open and close by virtue of movement along a track, but rather are opened by tensioning a cord around the midsection of such draperies.
Other known devices, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,131,831, disclose a timer 17. Such timers, such as the timer 17 disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,131,831, are not used for adjustably positioning the desired open position of the drape [which in U.S. Pat. No. 4,131,831 is accomplished by limit switch 18], rather such timers (typically programmable over the course of a day) regulate when during the day to open and shut the drapes, rather than how long the motor is to be actuated, which as indicated above is governed by limit switches 18,19.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a motorized drapery actuator apparatus or system which can be variably adjusted to effect opening drapes of various widths about their midsection.